Nothing but ramen at Nomiya on Magazine Street: opening alert

Hidetoshi "Elvis" Suzuki, the owner and chef at Kanno sushi bar, and Allen Nguyen, who has Bayou Hot Wings, are old friends. They'd talked about opening a ramen shop for years, but they were busy with their own places. Then Nguyen's sister, Christie Nguyen, decided to ditch her marketing career and get into restaurants. That's when the pieces fell into place for Nomiya, the new ramen noodle bar on Magazine Street.

Nomiya, which means bar or dive in Japanese, is tiny, with walls covered in pages torn from a comic book about food and graffiti-like murals painted by Zac Maras (he also decorated Central City BBQ). The menu has one main dish: ramen, made with pork broth that Nomiya simmers each Monday when the shop is closed.

"We're really inspired by how Japanese culture works to perfect one thing," Christie said. "This is it for the menu until we master it."

The ramen recipe came from Suzuki. Every bowl is filled with noodles, pork, eggs and scallions. Optional add-ons include fish cakes, pickled ginger and bamboo shoots.

"You can go crazy," Allen said. "There are no rules to it."

The most important ingredient, however, is the "tare," a secret mix that flavors the broth. Nomiya has a regular and a spicy tare.

"It's like adding a splash of Tabasco sauce into your gumbo," Allen said.

On opening day, the little restaurant was full with people waiting in line, in the August heat, for an hour to slurp down a bowl of ramen.